Planet Explorers is an open world sandbox adventure RPG game set on a distant planet. The game uses a new OpenCL calculated voxel system to allow players to change the terrain in any way, create new objects such as weapons, vehicles, objects, and do it anywhere.

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Early Access Game

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Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you
should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

“Planet Explorers is an open world RPG for its single player mode, as in there's a storyline with an ending. The game is in alpha, there will be bugs and strange things that we can't explain. Since it's an RPG, there will be more bugs than other games of the voxel type. Also due to the RPG nature, each main update will be spaced by about a month. But due to the decent size of our team, each update will contain a lot of content. We do listen very closely to our players, so you will have an opportunity to impact the direction of the game.”

March 11

Here’s a video of the new UI we’re preparing for a0.9. The new UI is faster and sleeker, it uses a more Windows-like design with a “start” button and a clear screen button. We tried to make the menus simpler in come cases, but game is what it is, so it’s not really possible to hide all the data that needs to be shown. This is still a work in progress, but we hope you like it.

On another note, Unity 5.0 just came out, we’re actively porting our game over to the new version of the engine. There are lots of bugs and changes that we need to make, but we’re going over them one by one. We hope to have this done by the time a0.9 comes out in April.

February 15

– Added the tutorial section of the Epiphany ship (can access via main menu)
– Added 4 new types of clothing
– Added several new buildings in Adventure mode
– Added new landscape features to Adventure mode
– Added the option to extend height to 512m in Adventure mode
– Tweaked town formation in Adventure mode

Of course, as always, we’ll try to fix and tweak any minor bugs in the coming days.

About This Game

In Planet Explorers, it is the year 2287, one of the first colony ships sent out by Earth arrives at the planet Maria, in the Epsilon Indi Star System. During its landing sequence, something appears in front of the massive ship that causes it to lose control and crash into the planet. Some of the colonists survive in lifeboats, but what they find is an unforgiving land filled with creatures ready to outlast the visitors from Earth. Now the survivors must explorer, gather, build, create, fight, and ultimately, build a new home.

Game Modes

Planet Explorers will feature single and multiplayer modes.

In single player there are 3 distinct selections

Story Mode – Story mode is the main meat and bones of the game, it is the action-adventure-rpg-somewhat-4X segment, offering npcs, missions, colony building, farming, ranching, training, diplomacy, and of course, a storyline that you can follow or ignore. This story features a 17X8km world map with many unique character, landscapes, biomes, locations, and over 100 types of potential enemies. Even though we’ve made it seem like a very action oriented game in the trailers, in reality, players can choose to not fight so much as to just plant a farm, make some food, keep the colonists alive, negotiate with the sentient aliens, and defend the perimeter from the local life forms. That can still eventually arrive at the ending. And yes, there is an ending.

Adventure Mode – This mode is based on a procedural map generated from a seed. Currently, it comes in a 40X40 kilometer map. Players will be able to complete random missions, defeat bosses, and explore different landscapes in the mode and eventually be able to setup conditions that they want to play (such as tower defense or attack an alien camp). This mode will also feature survival gameplay. The randomization in this mode will eventually pull in player made objects and locations so that a world will always feature something new and unique.

Build Mode – In this mode, there are no enemies and an infinite amount of building material. It also currently comes in a 40X40km map. Players will be able to build whatever they want in this mode, including everything in the Creations Editor. Think of this as the perfect testing ground to test everything you build. Or…it’s your place to build your garden without ever worrying about the pesky aliens.

Multiplayer allows Local Area Network and player hosted servers. It features several modes but some are still on the drawing board or going through technical trials so the final result is still in flux. Players playing multiplayer should be able to bring at least one of their created objects into multiplayer games, be it a sword, gun, or vehicle.

Coop – Coop comes in many selections, such as adventure mode, tower defense mode, build mode, etc. This is pretty much an open world sandbox with a max of 32 players (this number still needs to be stress tested).

Versus – This mode allows teams of up to 16 players to battle against 16 players from another team. We allow full terrain manipulation in this mode. Currently, it's a point based system where one team wins if they reach a certain point level based on kills, built objects, resources mined, etc.

Ive done my waiting! 4 Years! And still we dont get a decent successor of minecraft!

Planet Explorers has the first engine which look decent. Other than other Unity voxel games it goes a new way, away from the block shaped minecraft clone worlds.

What is the engine capable of?- generating a very nice looking 3D environment, with rivers, lakes, hills, mountains and endless oceans. A whole map can be 40x40km, thats not even close to be as big as a minecraft world, but still big enough to satisfy a great number of players.- having a lot of free roaming animals, that even work in groups, defend each other or fight other species.- having building sized boss enemis, with a great amount of different attacks (I mean seriously building sized, they are ♥♥♥♥ing huge).- complete voxel based 3D mapping. You can dig through every mountain for ressources, still the areas arent made of simple cubes, also you dont have a restriction of placing objects in a square system. And sometimes you can find gigantic caves, that even have lakes and rivers inside of them, big enough to fly through them with helicopters.- oh yeah, the game also has vehicles and guns. And the best part is: You can build them all by yourself (this would be maybe the current core element of the game)- A colony system with real working NPCs like a Real Time Strategy Game

What are the cons?- lack of actual exploring stuff- lack of balance (if you start on a gold and iron / aluminium spot, you can make your end equip in 30 minutes, or you die over and over again, because there is an enemy alien camp right ahead and constantly raiding you)- from patch to patch fluctuating between super stable and crashing every 15 minutes- you need a high end PC- you need to be very creative in crafting, or you are bound to other players workshop stuff- overpowering open world bosses are way to easy- sometimes annoying gamebreaking bugs like selfkill with a melee weapon- lack of content to do

The main course:

Crafting:The game comes with a complex editor, that allows the player to design his own guns, swords, shields, vehicles, boats and helicopters. It also allowes to craft free style objects without deeper purpose, that can be used as furniture, from a simple chair to a laptop with detailed screen.

Being awesome as it is, the editor doesnt glance with user friendlyness. Even making a corner or edge or diagonal structures can be a pain, creating round, sharp, beautiful looking or complex filigrane objects are only possible by...I dont know...havent figured it out jet. And the other players arent really helpful in answering this question.Also using material for your objects changes its abilitys. Every ressource has stability and weight, with aluminium being the most useful ressource, due to its strength and low weight. Creating a good looking weapon and also giving it good stats can be a painful balance act. For example I figured out, that a strong gun should have 40 aluminium as building costs. That way it would have 170 damage and exactly 100% accuracy. Every try of building it bigger would decrease the accuracy under 100% so that the gun wont shoot a straight line anymore.Swords are even worse because I still havent figured out, how to craft sharp blade structures with the editor. But the damage of the blade is calculated from the size of the weapon and how sharp the front is. I have found a workaround, but I dont think this is the way the game should be used.

Building vehicles is awesome, but currently the game restricts you, wherever it can. You are not allowed to use every vehicle part for every type of vehicle. You have restrictions of maximal parts of one type. I dont know if that is supposed to be some sort of balancing...For example you can use big thrusters instead of rotors for your helicopters, but you cant use those thrusters in other vehicle types. Yeah, maybe it doesnt work this way, but...why do I also cant use the helicopter energy cells on ground vehicles? I can use them on boats, why not in a car? That way, a tank rapitly runs out of fuel and ammo and isnt capable of doing long range scouting + fighting great amounts of enemys.

All in all you still can do a lot with the editor. More options are already announced (armor crafting).

Colony:While in minecraft you only build houses to feel happy (and be save at night), here you can build up a functional colony, with defence systems, factorys and farming. Also you are able to recruit NPCs to work for you. This currently only works in Singleplayer.

All in all Planet Explorers is a decent try of a open world sandbox, where you finally literally can do, what you want. I hope they wont let us down.

So I have put quite a few hours into this now, which gives me enough of a impression to actually write this. That is not to say that time played by default makes my opinions correct, or at all helpful, but I will try.

So I have been keeping an eye on this game since pretty much the start, maybe 2 years, not sure. But so far I have noted these key points.

The Developers:#The developers seem quite dedicated.#They seem ambitious, almost to a fault but not quite.#They are a recent announcement to upgrade to unity 5 shows they wish to improve even what seems to be set in stone. #They are slow, but they are also detailed, few game crushing bugs have ever popped up.#They are a small team, and not as vocal with there community as I would like. (keep this last one in mind when I describe the game, as it means alot when it comes to visual assets.)

The Game:#Graphics are pretty good in some ways, and in others a letdown.#The art style for humans leaves them feeling a little less real, and can be seen as a little cartoonish#Character customization leaves alot to be desired but has come a long way since earlier versions.#Animation leaves alot to be desired but it has been already announced they are going over the animations from scratch and makeing very impressive leaps already, set to be released in 0.90 along with Unity 5 engine.#Combat is currently clunky, ranged weapons are your only real weapon, use a bow at first but aim for a laser weapon ASAP and a large supply of batteries. Combat in melee is not an option at the moment but recent video and announcements have shown great leaps in the cambat system coming in 0.90 Unity 5 update.#AI are parted into what seem to be factions, many times you will see animals fighting in clear and defined rolls of hunter and pray, truly one of the fantastic parts of this game.

As for my impression of the game as a whole?I like it, I played through all the story that is currently there, and when I hit that first message saying I could not take this mission because it was not currently complete, I was left begging for more.

However I do worry the 0.90 update will require a total restart of my play through, but with all I have learned, and baring major changes, I will be able to do even better and even quicker next time round, I know where you hid my aluminum you sly dogs!

I would buy this game again, but there is one fact I must stress to all consumers. So please read this and take it to heart.

This is an early access game, you may end up with something you did not expect, it may be bad, it may be good, it may be total trash, but you knew this going in, you paid for an unfinished untested product and it is your risk alone to take!

Man,Absolute Thumbs Up. I don't know how you did it, but this thing has me soooooo hooked. More so than any game I have played in ages. As a senior gamer, I don't find many games any more that make me want to skip all required housework and play, play play, but this one has. I love it. Yes it's alpha and its buggy but that's why it's in alpha :-)I particularly like the mining mechanic, being able to see the mineral you are after in the walls and dig them out following the veins just make it so much more interesting.And the inventions.... oh man talk about the contraptions I have tried to build, most of which defy physics and of course don't really work but that's the point. My primitive car is used the most.

Planet explorers is a game unlike any other i have played recently. I guess you could classify it as an open world action adventure RPG on an alien planet.

Graphics

Amazingly rendered environments gives the planet a feel like youre actually exploring a whole other world. Weird plants wave in the wind. Large ominous trees loom in the distance. Dense forests full of vegetation to explore. 8/10

Gameplay

Gameplay comes in different forms. Planet explorers uses what is called an OpenCL voxel system that allows you to alter all terrain. dig a hole the hole appears. cut down a tree, and its gone. there are threee seperate forms of gameplay. Story mode tells the tale of a man that has crash landed on a mysterious planet and is sent to explore it. It sets the general arc of everything and acts a sort of tutorial for the other modes. Adventure mode allows you to just set parameters and explore to your hearts content with "towns" and npcs already in place where you can buy and sell your items. Multiplayer allows you to join a server and go explore, build structures, and co-op the games content. the Crafting system is where the game really shines. You can build pretty much anything you want, cars, planes, helicopters, hang gliders, guns, and many other things. over all a great gameplay experience. 8/10

Overall opinion

Still in early access at this point and it shows. I have had multiple issues with the MP system but that is all really. So far A solid title and definitly worth a buy in my opinion. 8/10

This game is really fun for an early access, although I waited until a steam sale and got it for 14.99 (gotta save those shekels, oy vey!).

It's like minecraft with great visuals set on some planet with dinosaurs. And jetpacks, planes, boats and bikes. That you build, from scratch in a CAD editor that is actually very simple to learn. It also has a story.

In short: Yes, I recommend this game. It's beautiful and fun to play alone or with friends. Just remember it is early acces alpha and give it time for updates. It's already improved leaps and bounds in the past 9 months.

This is actually the first game I took the "early access" chance on and I don't regret it! It has however, spoiled me with high expectations for other early access titles, lol.

I love building games and for me, this was the first voxel builder that let me work with different shapes. Awesome.It also has furniture and decorations. The creatures in this game have a wonderfully alien feel to them and the mega-huge boss mobs are very impressive and inspires a definite "holy $#!+, we are supposed to kill THAT?" *runs away* feeling. Exploring is great, even early on before you have the materials to craft the ridiculous aircraft and such, you can make jet packs and grapling hooks for some seriously fun travel through the world.

The feature I'm most looking forward to at the moment is farming to be fully functional in multiplayer mode since that's where I spend 99% of my time, playing with my friends and family on our lan based servers.

Combat needs to be a little more interesting but they've already stated they're working on that and sooo much more. The devs regularly communicate with their players and are regularly pumping out updates and hotfixes. They're also working on making the single-player story mode into multi-player which was a huge request from the players.

Yes, it's alpha, there are still bugs though most of the game-breaking-frustrating bugs seem to have been taken care of since I started last spring. This is without a doubt one of my favorite games I found on Steam. A hidden gem of sorts, and while it isn't finished, the progress it's made already is phenomenal and I always look forward to the next major patch to see what craziness they've managed to pull of next!

One of the best games I have played that has to do with surviving, hunting, and crafting.

Do you like jetpacks, gliders, parachutes? Cars, Helicoptors, Boats? All kinds of guns from using bullets to energy? Making monorail trains even? Then you got to get this game.

Comparing this game to other games out there, like Minecraft or Terraria/Starbound, this game is like those but plays even better, and with better graphics. Not to mention, you can either go for co-operative survival, or free-for-all/secretive teaming survival like you would in a game like Day Z. I should also mention, this game allows you to create your own items/vehicles that can be used anywhere in the game!

I very highly recommend this game to anyone who has played any of the mentioned simular games to this, I bet you'll love it, no doubt.

I have been looking for a game exactly like Planet Explorers for years now. Essentially, I wanted a game about exploration and building, with an additional leadership/colony establistment dynamic added. I always played minecraft near villages, but the lack of content aimed at interacting with and leading the npcs always left me disappointed, and I wanted something better.

In Planet Explorers, you crashland on the planet Maria after something happened to the space ship, called the Epiphany, carrying hundreds of colonists. Your early quests involve providing immediate assistance and reconnaissance to the scattered and lost crews, who came down on different "lifeboats," crashing their smaller spaceships all over the main continent.

Maria is a very beautiful, engaging, and dangerous world, and I feel that I have only scratched the surface in the hours I've spent playing this game. There are different regions, called biomes because of their differing ecology, where different herbs and resources can be gathered. I find the game challenging, as early in the game you start of with very little and you can't craft everything all at once (in story mode, there are other gamemodes for just building or adventuring without the story constraints). Mining is more challenging than other similar games, because mining to a specific level isn't the answer. You use a scanning device to find various minerals, and their distribution is fairly unpredictable. Building is well done in this game, because the block is visible before it is placed, so you can get it positioned just right then place it. You can also place partial blocks, which adds detail and customization potential. Removing blocks is as simple as pressing Alt while in buildmode. I haven't built much so I'm not sure how complex what you can make is, but so far I've been pleased with the mechanics of it.

Another fun thing about this game is the createable content. Swords, guns, vehicles, and even decorative items can be created in a special interface, then once you gather the materials to make the item you can simply export them into your game. So far I only have a vehicle in the car category, but you can make everything from motorcycles to fighter jets. If you are lazy like I am, you can just go to special websites to download the "iso" files, which can then be plopped directly into the files for the game. So far this has been the route I've taken, because although thorough and very customizable, the creator tool seems tedious to me.

I just reached the point of actually establishing my colony, and I have been pleased with the mechanics and purpose it serves. I won't go into it much for fear of spoilers, but it is very customizable and there is a definate leadership element to managing the colony, it isn't a passive structure but an active community. It is also important to point out that this game is in Alpha presently- yet I am more excited and impressed with this game than I have been with many fully released pc games on stream. I definitely recommend this game to anyone looking for a challenging, creative, beautiful game about space exploration (gone horribly wrong- in a good way!).

I don't normally do reviews because i suck at them, so to benefit everyone including myself i'll keep this short...

Buy this game, no really.

An alien chased me, so i made a sword with a smileyface on it and wacked him over the head with it.An alien chased me, so i made a gun with a smileyface on it and shot him in the head with it.An alien chased me, so i made a 30.000 ton aircraftcarrier with a smileyface on it and crashlanded on his head with it...

An excellent addition to the sandbox adventure/miner sub-genre, Planet Explorers is, in a nutshell, what people who fell for the hype over StarForge were and still are looking for.

Where Starbound is basically Terraria in space, Planet Explorers has that same relationship with Minecraft but manages to be better. While Minecraft uses block-based voxels to construct its landscapes, Planet Explorers uses OpenCL. This enables the terrain to be just as malleable as that of Minecraft, but look a damn sight better. Though admittedly OpenCL, being a prototype, has a few bugs, one of which is that vehicles travelling at high speed over rough ground have a tendency to clip through the terrain as of 0.85. That said, the bugs present in the alpha of Planet Explorers, albeit slightly frustrating at times, are easily more forgivable than those in certain AAA games (*stares viciously at EA and Ubisoft*) and barely put a scratch into the rest of the game.

Story mode is easily the best of the three game modes, the other two being Adventure (basically Minecraft Survival) and Build (creative mode). Beneath the magnificent visuals - not to mention the aliens themselves (which look slightly less silly than those in Starbound) - there is a surprisingly well-crafted storyline with interesting lore and bright characters to explore. Item crafting in Story is tiered depending on how far you are into the story, with simple wooden equipment available for use at the start and more powerful armour and weapons being available for manufacture later on.

Speaking of crafting, Planet Explorers has what far too few games of this genre have in my honest opinion - a fleshed-out and incredibly detailed item creation system that is easily mastered to boot. One can create a huge amount of useful, fully personalised items and vehicles - swords, guns, bikes, tanks, helicopters, boats and airborne dreadnoughts, to name but a few. Unfortunately, it is not possible to create custom tools or armour, and firearms are limited to pistols, assault rifles and laser rifles (but this might change soon). Nonetheless, Planet Explorers' powerful item creation system gives it a big leverage over other games of its genre.

To conclude: do I recommend this game? Of course I do. If you can forgive the glitches and bugs (take into account that this is an alpha, and not a fully released game yet), a wonderful sandbox adventure that has the potential to surpass even Minecraft in its scope awaits the lenient.

However, lacks some depth in 'purpose' (what is your 'goal' in the game) and gathering of resources is very clunky and slow.

Has a lot of potential and worth checking out, but seriously, don'tbe one of those 'I just bought an Early Access game and hated it, wtf!' people. Watch some videos, check out reviews, and if you're just not interested in 'wasting money' supporting a game that isn't finished yet, buy it on sale or don't get it.

It's crazy. You run around killing things and getting better items like in any RPG-FPS thing, only it's a bit rogue-like in that you have no idea (at least at first) whether you've bitten off more thna you can chew. Combine this with almost god-like powers to build things, both permanent fixtures and crafting useable items ranging from personal weapons to land, water, and air vehicles. And no real documentation so you have to experiment, experiment, experiment. Oh, and you can starve to death, too, unless you learn how to get food. And once you get beyond these basics, there's a whole alien world to explore, quests, bosses, the works. Fantastic concept and incredible freedome. It can easily become a total time sink.

Cons:- Huge distances to cover on foot early in single player game.- AI is not the best, path finding needs work.- Lack of terrain tools to work with.

Over all PE is a fun and enjoyable experience, however some frustrations come up when NPC get stuck and you have to walk a half mile back to get them. Crafting is great and you can download creations that other players have made easily. If you are looking for an open world, good single player story, base building, resource gathering game, then PE is for you.